Review - Unknown Neighbours

Theatre Works and Festival of Live Art Present

UNKNOWN NEIGHBOURS

By Ranters Theatre and Creative VaQi

Created by

Beth Buchanan                 Performer

Adriano Cortese               Co-Director

Da-Huim Kim                    Performer

Kyung-Sung Lee               Co Director

Deborah Leiser-Moore   Performer

Kyung-Min Na                   Performer

Soo-Yeon Sung                  Performer

Theatre Works 12 – 18 March 2018

Site-specific work can be a bit hit and miss.  Unknown Neighbours is a hit not to be missed!  No seriously - this is a rich and rewarding collaboration between Ranters Theatre and Creative VaQi from Korea for the FOLA (Festival of Living Art).  And the season is only a few days!

As an organic cultural exchange that was first performed in Seoul, Unknown Neighbours is, and is destined to be, much more then the sum of its parts.  It is a collaboration between Theatre makers from Eastern and Western communities with differences in language, community structures, religion and styles of theatre making and an inimitable offering. 

On any single visit each audience member gets to see one main piece of the four or five unique sight-specific installations, but most significantly, acquires a rich sense of the connections and rewards of this intercultural collaboration.

On opening night I went to the house that was occupied by Beth Buchanan and her investigation into, and expression of, separation.  This intense and affecting work conjures the visceral reality of what, individuals dissolving relationships can experience.  Eventually, it, very satisfyingly, morphs into a philosophical contemplation on romantic and lasting relationships, home and aloneness.  Ms. Buchanan is beautifully in control of her material and environment and communicates with her audience with great integrity.

I can only speak for this particular experience however - as an indication of the gravitas of the work on offer any of the individual works would be worth caching.  I don’t know how the bookings are decided - it may just be the luck of the draw – ‘pot luck.’  (Check with Theatre Works on this.)

A brisk walk follows the engagement with the various housed performance installations, to a park area where all performers and audience meet amongst locals and general vibrant everyday goings on.  Here the intended focus seems more general and elicits a sense of community.   Our next stop is the wonderful atmospheric and unsettlingly enhanced environment of the very old Christ Church St Kilda - next to the once Parish Hall - Theatre Works.  Here idiosyncratically East meets West with an unearthly sense of magic as Korean bells chime in a traditional church space and we move in an unconventional way throughout the area.

Finally five performers share something of their experience of involvement with aspects of the work and we are taken on a, galvanizing, projected video of the surrounding suburb and out to the bay.

A unique and very special adventure that I can’t recommend highly enough.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)